Global divestment movement announces a major mobilisation

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From 5-13 May, the Global Divestment Mobilisation will intensify the demand for individuals and institutions to divest from the companies most responsible for causing climate change.

With regressive politics on the rise, and the impacts of climate change already devastating the livelihoods of communities around the world, divestment from fossil fuels is expanding into new regions to further help enact the immediate climate leadership the world urgently needs.

Thousands worldwide will take action to push cities, universities, churches, pension funds, museums and other institutions to demonstrate climate leadership by breaking their financial ties to fossil fuel companies.

During 2016, labeled the hottest year in history, climate impacts continued to devastate the livelihoods of communities all around the world, disproportionately harming those who have contributed the least to this crisis.

The fossil fuel industry has been knowingly driving this climate crisis for the last half century, funding climate denial and inaction in order to keep its stranglehold on our economies.

Communities across Australia will be calling on one of the country’s biggest banks - Westpac - to rule out funding for the Adani mega mine and divest from fossil fuels.

People all over Aotearoa New Zealand will be taking bold, direct action through colourful and creative actions to urge Westpac to divest from fossil fuels, and say no to funding the Adani mega mine in Queensland.

In East Asia, groups will throw a spotlight on investors from Japan, China and South Korea that fund destructive fossil fuel projects that harm the health and livelihoods of communities in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The divestment network in Europe will increase the pressure on universities, cities, churches, pension funds and museums to cut their ties to fossil fuel companies. The Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, the Louvre museum in Paris, and the London City Hall are among the targets as the movement escalates.

More and more groups are taking action to promote fossil fuel divestment across Latin America, mainly in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. A vigil for the victims of climate disasters and for the refugees, will draw attention on the moral imperative to divest.

GDM will put the spotlight on climate impacts in South Africa and how fund managers can fully address the moral, financial and fiduciary risks of carbon exposure. The University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University, along with the city of Cape Town, will be the focus of the demand to divest.

To date almost 700 institutions across the globe, representing funds worth over $5 trillion, have made some form of divestment commitment. The Global Divestment Mobilisation will mark a new turning point for this growing movement to continue building the just world everyone deserves, away from political processes co-opted and corrupted by the industry.